Sex offenders face tougher registration

Convicted sex offenders who try to sneak back into the UK without owning up to their crimes could face up to five years imprisonment as part of a double-barrelled move to tighten up registration requirements, Home Secretary David Blunkett will signal tomorrow.

In his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference in Blackpool, Mr Blunkett will also announce that all 18,500 people on the Sex

Offenders Register will be obliged to re-register their details with the police annually, instead of every five years as at present.

Failing to comply with that requirement could also carry a five-year jail term.

Home Office ministers believe the changes, which will feature in sex offences legislation early next year, are needed to plug loopholes in the way the Register currently operates.

"The public protection of children remains my greatest priority. These measures will help the authorities know where the sex offenders are and where they are living and staying," Mr Blunkett will tell delegates.

He will add that the measures will help give the UK the "toughest child protection laws" anywhere in the world.

They will apply, however, to those who commit offences against adults as well as children.

An aide to Mr Blunkett said that although compliance with the Register was already high, the authorities which enforce it needed the best possible information.

"We need to ensure they have got a more regular flow of information. It shouldn't be the case that we lose sight of people for five years, even if their patterns of behaviour are acceptable," the aide said.

Under Mr Blunkett's plans, any British citizen convicted of a serious sex offence abroad would be required to sign on to the Register on their return to these shores - there is no such requirement at the moment. Foreign citizens with sex convictions would also be required to register.

"A sex offender is a sex offender, regardless of where they commit their crime," the aide said.

On the domestic registration requirements, at present those on the Register are obliged to go to a police station to update their records if they change their name or address, but otherwise they only have to re-register every five years.

Under the new arrangements, everyone on the Register would have to re-register annually regardless of whether their details had changed.

Mr Blunkett's aide said that overall, Mr Blunkett would use his speech to give a progress report on the three major areas in which the Home Office is pursuing reform - policing, the criminal justice system and immigration and asylum.

He would argue that guaranteed order and security are essential to the delivery of a progressive society and social justice.